Nate412

New to the forum and looking for some advice!

I'm currently running 20's (305/25 rears & 255/30 front) on my 2013 GS 350 F Sport. I live in Pittsburgh where we don't get heavy snow but it definitely snows...so as you can imagine this set up isn't going to fly (unless it's off the road into a ditch). So I'm looking to invest in a set of 19" OEM wheels and hoping I can find a set of snow/winter tires to slap on them for the winter months.

Stock for the RWD 2013 F Sport is a staggered 235/40/19 (19x8) front and 265/35/19 (19x9) rear.

My question is it possible to do a squared set-up for the RWD F Sport (ie - 235/40/19, 19x8 for all four tires)?

CottageChz

Hey man, I am from Pittsburgh also. Ballsy going with the RWD haha. I thought RWDs were pretty damn hard to find in this area too. But I'm sure you'll be fine with some winter tires.

I have an AWD, but from what I've read on here I believe you should be able to run the same size wheel on all four. Hopefully someone with a RWD can confirm this.

Why not step down a few inches in the winter? Save some money on the tires, that winter rubber is damn expensive. I believe Lexus makes some 17s for these cars if you are looking to go OEM.

Nobeanspls

Square setup is fine. Only AWD has to worry about rolling diameter. RWD can run 18s up front and 20s out back with different pairings of tires width. Hell if you want you can run wider tires upfront and skinnier out back to get easy tail out action.

Nate412

Thanks fellas!

And yes, going RWD here in Da 'Burgh was a bit adventurous, but I couldn't help myself!

Nobeanspls - thanks for confirming the square set-up on the RWD...that helps! I just need to figure out if I want to go with 19's or 18's.

My only other concern is if I do go with 19's that I don't encounter any rubbing issues if I go with the aspect ratio/"profile" of 40 since the OEM "profile" is 35 for the rear tires (OEM is 40 for the fronts so that's not going to be an issue). Any thoughts on this or does anyone know if I get 19" OEM wheels can I run a 40 profile on the rear without any rubbing issues?

GregCanada

What are the smallest sized rims that will fit over the front brakes?

I would go a square setup, 235 width with whatever height works.

Nate412

18's would fit on the F Sport (don't believe 17's would work because of the front brake plus I don't want to go that small).


I'd prefer to put 19's on it which is the OEM size it came with. But to get rid of the staggered set-up for winter and go square I'd need to go with 235/40/19 (19x8).


The tire diameter for the OEM set up on the rears (265/35/19) is 26.303


If I go with the squared set up of 235/40/19 the tire diameter would be 26.402


This doesn't appear to be that big of a tire diameter increase but I'm just not 100% sure and really don't want to run into any rubbing issues. In the same token if I can make the 19's work that's what I'd like to do....

GregCanada

.1" will not give you any rubbing issues, don't worry about that at all. If you said 1", then yes you might have reason to be worried.

That is actually the factory size on the AWD GS350 F Sport, from Lexus.com:

WHEELS AND TIRES, STANDARD
19 x 8.0-in split-five-spoke alloy wheels with 235/40VR19 all-season tires*

djrabbi

iTrader: (2)

I am going with 245/45/18 on my AWD F-Sport. Give a bit more cushion paired with DWS Tires. Now I have to find 18" wheels!

Nate412

GregCanada - thanks man...and you make a great point. I should have done a bit more homework to see what tire/wheel size the AWD GS 350 F Sport was running. So if it's running a 40 profile on 19's then it shouldn't be an issue to run that on my RWD F Sport (although wonder why they run the RWD with a 35 profile instead of 40).


Anyways, this is good news since there are no winter/snow tires with a 35 profile (which makes sense), but when you go up to a 40 profile I'll at least have a couple of options.


Appreciate everyone's help with this....much appreciated!

GregCanada

No prob Nate, glad i could help.

On the profile front - remember that profile is just a divisible of the width. 35 profile of 265 (265x0.35 = 92.75mm) is very near equal in height to a 40 profile of 235 (235x0.40= 94mm). The overall rolling diameter is within 2.5mm. And every tire is a slightly different size (between manufacturers and even casings/tread types) that there really is no appreciable difference.

jtrue28

305??? Wow! That doesn't rub? Not sure I've ever seen anyone run that width. Most people on here are scared to death to run 285.